The use of alternating internal combustion engines for a wide number of purposes is known to all. The fuel concerned (of various types, oil-based as well as gaseous) forms, together with air, an explosive mixture which is burnt inside a space called a combustion chamber formed by a cylinder and a piston. The connecting rod fixed to the piston works the crankshaft. The power exercised on the piston, and on the other sides of the combustion chamber, is obviously that created by the pressure which the explosion produces.
In the field of explosives the so-called "hollow charge" is also well-known, this being the bursting charge constituted by an explosive mass enclosed within a metal container at one end of which a cavity is open in the direction opposite to that of the primer. This means that, instead of the explosion taking effect in all directions, it becomes concentrated into an explosive wave creating an axial jet located in a cylindrical zone the axis of which is the extension of the geometrical axis of the charge.
The shape of the cavity differs greatly from one case to another but the best are cone-shaped or hemispherical and the greatest effects are obtained from hyperbolical cavities.
Working pressure increases by about 15-20 times that created by an ordinary charge while wave speed may exceed 9000 m/sec.
In the combustion of explosive mixtures taking place in alternating internal combustion engines, whether ignited spontaneously or sparked, the above invention brings about phenomena similar to those previously stated, which phenomena considerably increase the output and power of the engine as will now be described.